Sunday, February 28, 2016

Homemade Tomato Sauce

With the dog days of summer coming to a close so too are the delicious home grown tomatoes. With the end sadly in sight I thought it time to put up some fresh Amish Bradley tomatoes in a tomato sauce so that I can enjoy their rich sweetness throughout the fall and winter.

In all honesty, I have tried this before with other recipes and varying degrees of success. I have never tried this combo of ingredients before and thought they all looked like everything I love so I decided to go for it.

End result....absolute deliciousness, however, it was a tad time consuming, I made an utter disaster of the kitchen and in the end I somehow had tomato pulp running down my chest....don't try to picture it...it was not pretty.

With all of that to be said, I will be glad come October when I can make spaghetti sauce with my homemade tomato sauce as the flavor is to die for!

Homemade Tomato Sauce

10 ripe tomatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 cup Burgundy wine*

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have ready a large bowl of iced water.

Slice an "X" into the bottom of each tomato.

Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute.

Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel, cut out the place where the stem was attached, and squeeze out seeds.

Puree tomatoes in blender or food processor.

*Note: At the liquor store closest to my house I went in search of burgundy wine. The cheapest bottle I could find was $25 and I didn't feel like spending that for just a few tablespoons so I consulted the kind woman who introduced me to the "German Porch Pounder"...get your mind out of the gutter....it is named such because you can pound a bottle of this German blend while sitting on your front porch. Anyhoo, she suggested I try the following Crane Lake wine as it has many of the properties of the Burgundy at a fraction of the price. Once again, she did not lead me astray!

In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, celery, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes.

Pour in pureed tomatoes.

Stir in basil, Italian seasoning and wine.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours. Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours. Put up in mason jars to freeze for later or serve immediately.

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